Chapter 367: Must Be Having A Heatiness
By the time Bai Ruozhu came to her senses, she was holding Dengdeng in one hand, freeing the other hand to push against Jiang Yichun. This place was a tea house, a waiter could come in at any time. If one saw them, would she be able to save her face?
Jiang Yichun was totally engrossed in kissing her, like finding it hard to stop after tasting sweet honey. Although he didn’t usually like sweets, he found her lips sweet, reaching the bottom of his heart, helping him forget about all his worries.
But as much as he didn’t want to stop, he was careful not to hurt the child. In the end, he had to let go of Bai Ruozhu, although his face still wore an unsatisfied expression.
Bai Ruozhu swiftly punched him in the chest and whispered sharply, "Are you out of your mind? If you keep on like this, I don’t want to see you anymore. You’re showing absolutely no respect for me!"
Jiang Yichun looked deflated. He touched his nose, questioning why she wasn’t blushing and feeling shy like most women would at such a moment. Why was she still so fierce? If he wasn’t so good at martial arts, he would have ended up with internal injuries from her punch.
Seeing him deflate, Bai Ruozhu’s anger lessened. She stood up, intending to walk off in a huff, but faltered when she touched her lips. The anger surged back again.
She glared at him fiercely and said, "Look what you’ve done. How am I supposed to go out now?"
Looking at her swollen lips, Jiang Yichun found them even more captivating - tempting him to pull her in for another kiss.
"Drink some tea, it’ll be better in a while," Jiang Yichun said, attempting to be delicate.
Bai Ruozhu rolled her eyes at him, "How is it going to get better in a while? Tell me the truth, did you sneak into my room the night my elder brother got married and did... did..." She suddenly felt awkward proceeding further.
Seeing her like this, Jiang Yichun posed a mischievous question, "Did what?"
Bai Ruozhu glared at him, questioning whether he saw her as a shy old–fashioned woman. She was a feisty modern woman; she feared no one!
"Did you or did you not sneak a kiss while I was deep asleep?" Bai Ruozhu said it straight, lifting her chin slightly, she looked defiant and spirited.
"Why do you have to do such covert things? Aren’t you anxious?" Bai Ruozhu continued to speak openly, "Is there any difference between your actions and those of a womanizer? Aren’t you afraid of being scorned?"
Jiang Yichun looked embarrassed at her words. Clearing his throat to cover up, he said, "When did I ever sneak a kiss? When I kiss you, I do it openly."
Bai Ruozhu gritted her teeth, tried to take a swipe at him again, but he evaded it effortlessly.
"Are you a real man to commit but not admit?" Bai Ruozhu taunted.
Jiang Yichun suddenly stepped forward again, a sly smile playing on his lips, "Do you think I haven’t proven that I’m a man?"
Bai Ruozhu’s face immediately turned red, her words now sounded ambiguous and his words added to the ambiguity. She felt the conversation going awry and reminded herself that she came to question him, not indulge in flirting!
"Hey, be serious. If you keep this up, I am leaving." Bai Ruozhu, trying to keep her stern expression, faltered hugely as the redness in her face made her seem not imposing at all.
Jiang Yichun held back his laugh and raised both hands, "Alright, alright, let’s have a serious talk."
"Don’t deny it, I woke up the next morning with swollen lips, who else could it be if not you?" Bai Ruozhu stared at Jiang Yichun.
This time, Jiang Yichun couldn’t deny any further. If it wasn’t him, then who was it? Just a thought about another man being near Bai Ruozhu was enough to drive him mad.
"Well, I tried to wake you up, but you were so tired you didn’t come around." Jiang Yichun tried to explain, "Then I lost my willpower; I intended to give a peck and leave, but who knew..."
He chuckled, implying, who knew you’d be that passionate?
Keeping the last part to himself, he kept a casual expression. Bai Ruozhu caught his drift and glared at him again, "What did you say? What’s with me?"
Jiang Yichun leaned forward, with a wicked smile, he lowered his voice, "You held me and said you wanted to trap me for warming your bed. Don’t you remember anything at all?"
Bai Ruozhu felt like she turned to stone, she vaguely remembered a dream where she was holding Jiang Yichun’s chin and telling him to behave or she’d make him warm her bed. But she couldn’t remember what happened next.
Jiang Yichun obviously skipped a part deliberately, as he had filtered out the following sentence "kneel and sing" in her dream.
Now it was Bai Ruozhu’s turn to feel embarrassed. She tried to laugh it off, "Not possible, I have absolutely no memory of that."
"Why would I lie to you? You were so passionate, how could I control myself?" Jiang Yichun tried to sound innocent. Although Bai Ruozhu did hold his neck and talk fiercely in her dream, he was the one who kissed her first.
Bai Ruozhu, unaware of the complete situation, was flustered and didn’t know what to do. But seeing Jiang Yichun’s serious face, she regretted probing this matter further as it only led to an embarrassing situation for herself.
"Well, Dengdeng needs to be fed, I’d better leave now." She stood up with Dengdeng in her arms.
Jiang Yichun couldn’t suppress his laughter, he reached for his mask and put it on once more, "I had to go to Beiyu City for some work a few days ago, I trust you weren’t upset about me leaving without saying goodbye?"
Bai Ruozhu couldn’t be bothered fussing over that right now, she was eager to find a hole and crawl into it.
"No, no, your work is more important." She forced a laugh, not bothering about her swollen lips anymore. Carrying Dengdeng, she hurried out of the private room and made a hasty exit from the tea house.
Perhaps she walked too fast, as it woke Dengdeng up. Dengdeng began to whimper in hunger.
Bai Ruozhu decided not to go to the stall and headed home instead, to feed Dengdeng.
Fang Guizhi saw her return and asked in surprise, "Ruozhu, why are you back?"
"Nothing much. I met young master Du on the way, he was delivering some medicinal ingredients. We talked about our co-operation, and then Dengdeng woke up needing to be fed. Since we were near home, I decided to come back and feed her."
With that, she headed inside. Fang Guizhi quickly followed her to lend a hand, but then noticed Bai Ruozhu’s swollen lips.
"Ruozhu, what happened to your lips? Did you eat something and have an allergic reaction at lunch?" Fang Guizhi, still a young girl, couldn’t imagine that there could be some other reasons for swollen lips. She shared her own experience, "Once, I ate a raw cucumber that tasted odd, and my lips swelled up so much they went numb. It took until the next day for everything to return to normal."
Bai Ruozhu’s face heated up at her words, grateful for the dim lighting in the room that concealed her blush.
"I must be having heatiness. I’ll drink some Chrysanthemum tea later." Bai Ruozhu said with her head down. She silently cursed Jiang Yichun for making her feel so embarrassed!